Becoming an influencer and using social media can help you make more money. This is because there are a lot of businesses today that use influencers for marketing their product or service. An influencer has the ability to influence or persuade a person or group of people in a distinct niche on their purchasing decision because of their knowledge, authority, position, or relationship with their audience.
According to an article published in Mic, a sponsored post can range from $50 to more than $50,000, depending on the reach of the influencer. A good example would be Selena Gomez or Kylie Jenner, who each have over 100 million Instagram followers. One sponsored post will make them earn around $800,000 and $1,000,000.
But what makes an influencer influential? An influencer becomes influential when he or she has already built a reputation for having expertise or knowledge of a specific matter such as fashion, makeup, sports, health, and wellness, etc. They promote their content using different mediums such as blogs, podcasts, YouTube, and other social media platforms like Instagram.
Influencer marketing has blown up over a couple of years, and it is a perfect avenue to make money. However, before you reach this level of being an influencer, you must monetize your platform first, and this is by getting gigs.
6 Ways to Get Gigs as an Influencer
1. Establish social proof
Building your credibility in a particular niche will help you create expertise and trustworthiness in your focused area. For example, if your subject or content focuses on beauty, you will be recognized to have more authority when it comes to a particular makeup brand as opposed to a social media influencer whose main niche is in technology.
The number of your followers, together with your authoritative position, will form social proof—and this will make you appear as a well-established influencer. As a result, people will be more likely to purchase the product or service you are promoting because they tend to jump on the bandwagon of people who have already made a purchase. Another effect would be that your followers will value your opinion. Therefore, when they make a judgment to do a purchase, they will believe that what they are doing is the right action or decision based on your opinion.
With this, you will have more gigs as more marketers and businesses contact you to promote their products and services because of the social proof you have established.
2. Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a commission-based agreement where you earn in return for promoting a product or service. The partner would receive a percentage of sales if the sale was made because of the influencer’s post or content. It is typically on a pay-per-click, pay-per-sale, or pay-per-lead model.
Not only can the influencer earn a hefty amount of cash, but it will also help grow their followers. You will have a chance to get access to new audiences as you promote products, services, or brands through genuine recommendations. It will also boost your legitimacy as an influencer, giving you more deals and gigs along the way.
3. Marketing events
Another way that influencers can earn more money is by hosting or attending events. Influencer marketing has started to become more popular in recent years. Businesses already have an idea of what influencers can do for their business and boost their sales. It helps increase brand exposure online and offline. According to invesp, 94% of marketers in the U.S. use influencer marketing because, for them, it is an effective tactic and it delivers 11 times higher ROI than traditional forms of digital marketing. Also, attending these events will increase the exposure of an influencer and can build more networks that will help you get more gigs.
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4. Co-create products
You can monetize your standing as an influencer and generate a steady stream of income by creating a partnership with other brands to co-create a product. There are several influencers who are into these gigs across every niche, such as technology, sports, beauty, travel, and food. Influencers make a lot of money by co-creating products. In return, they receive a compensation plan or commission on sales. The amount of earnings would depend on the agreement with the brand.
5. Collaborate with other influencers
Influencers are gaining popularity these days, having the same appeal as celebrities and top personalities. One way of building your followers and getting more exposure is by collaborating with other influencers on projects. You can find influencers in the same niche as you are so that your content direction will be cohesive and not look like it is all over the place. Additionally, it is also smart if you collaborate with an influencer whose niche is somewhat related to yours. For example, if your niche is about healthy food, you can find an influencer whose niche is in fitness. Together, you can create content about how to lose weight faster with your partnered influencer exercise tips and your low-calorie healthy food recipes.
6. Connect with brands
Before you connect with brands, you need to make sure that you have many followers for these brands to take a genuine interest in you. Most industries and brands prefer influencers with a minimum of 5,000 followers. Once you have that (or more than that) number, you just need to figure out what brands you like to work with based on your content and followers. Afterwhich, you can join their brand ambassador program. Finding a brand that will pay for your niche is not easy, but don’t get discouraged. It takes a lot of work before you find a business that will invest in you. Besides, you can always join an influencer agency like Tiddle that will find great collaboration opportunities for you!
If you want to pursue becoming an influencer, you must learn how to influence and persuade people. You must encourage as many relevant people as possible to follow you and convert them to active audiences. If you have more engaged audiences, chances are, you will get more gigs as businesses will be more interested in sponsoring your posts. Persuasion and influencing require talent, skills, and psychology. Here are some recommended online courses for you:
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